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Dancing in the Rain by John Lyons (Peepal Tree Press)

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Dancing in the Rain by John Lyons (Peepal Tree Press) Dancing in the Rain by John Lyons (Peepal Tree Press) John Lyons provides an insight into his Trinidadian childhood in this collection which the judges described as breath of fresh air. He describes the climate, dancing in the warm rain after recognising the signs of a gathering storm in the title poem, contrasting with the cold in England in ‘Monica’s Winter’ and ‘Happy Snowman’. Nature comes to life in the words and the pictures drawn by the poet, whether it’s the happy hummingbird, the marsupial Trini ‘manicou with its pouchy tum’, ‘Tobago land crabs with a mangrove smell’, ‘wild and swift’ ‘nervous and shy agoutis’ or the iguana ‘this big lizard at large’ who ‘is talented with camouflage.’ There are some striking encounters with ghosts and ghouls from Caribbean folklore such as ‘Setting a Trap for Soucouyant’, ‘Looking for Douennes’ and ‘The Climbing Skeleton’, shown in suitable scary fashion shinning up a tree. Sharing food brings out relationships with family and friends, especially between generations, and is where the poet often writes in the nation language of Trinidad, saying ‘How ah love de sugarcake/meh Granny does mek’ and ‘At home wid meh sticky-mango-juice face,/meh grandma gimmeh ah good lickin/wid ah tamarind switch.’ This collection is shortlisted for the 2016 CLPE Poetry Award. Overall aims of this teaching sequence. To experience poetry as pleasurable and meaningful . To compare how a common theme is presented in poetry . To explore the language and style of poetry through talk, performance, visual art, reading and writing . To learn how to bring out the meaning of a poem through performance . To learn more about writing poems (as a class, group and individually) based on observation and experience This teaching sequence is designed for a Year 4 or 5 class. Overview of this teaching sequence. This teaching sequence is designed to be delivered over 15 sessions but teachers will want to use their own judgement about the length of time their class will need to spend on each of the sessions. The teaching sequence is split into three sections. The sequence is planned this way so that teachers can explore key themes central to the collection. The collection is a wonderful example of self-expression, ©The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education. You may use this teaching sequence freely in your school but it cannot be commercially published or reproduced or used for anything other than educational purposes without the express permission of CLPE. both emotionally and in terms of expressing a sense of identity. The first section therefore explores what we can learn about a poet from reading their poetry and looks at poetry as a means of self- expression. These sessions are designed to explore personal response and expression and to help children understand the different ways in which they can respond to poetry as well as understanding how it can be a vehicle for personal storytelling. Central to many poems in the collection is a sense of cultural identity as well as a strong sense of place. The second section therefore investigates poems in this collection which explore Caribbean culture, with a focus on carnival and calypso music. The final section investigates John Lyons’ poems about the natural world and helps children to understand and experience the ways in which he uses language to describe nature and the feelings it inspires. The sequence is designed so that the children’s experience of this collection, and their understanding of a poet’s voice and use of language, will support them to use similar techniques, poetic devices and wordplay in their own writing. Teaching Approaches Outcomes . Reading aloud . Art work . Booktalk . Collaborative poetry . Responding to poetry . Individual poetry . Responding to visual imagery . Poetry performance . Visualisation . Poetry journals . Annotating and text marking . Poetry anthologies . Shared writing Exploring Poetic Devices . Rhythm . Repetition . Rhyme . Imagery . Onomatopoeia Cross Curricular Links: Art: Throughout the sequence, art is used as a means of visualising and representing real and imagined experiences. Using a range of materials throughout these sessions will be important as well as a focus on specific techniques for observing real objects and representing imagined experiences. Responding to the children’s drawings afterwards will allow them to explore the effectiveness of techniques and materials used. Science: The focus on Nature in Part 3 of the sequence links to scientific knowledge in Key Stage 2 around the life cycles of plants and animals, work done in science could provide a stimulus for the poetry writing at the end of Part 3. Geography: Many of the poems in the collection reflect John Lyons’ childhood experience of growing up in Trinidad and Tobago. The sequence could therefore provide a starting point for a cross curricular study of this region. The children could conduct a comparative study in which they compare the human and physical geography of Trinidad and Britain. Music: Throughout the sequence children can explore the beat and rhythm of poetry linking this to their existing knowledge of music. The sequence offers opportunity for improvisation and to compose music for a poetry performance. The focus on carnival in section 2 also offers the opportunity to explore calypso music and steel bands. Links to other texts and resources: John Lyons’ poems for children feature in the following poetry collections: A Caribbean Dozen edited by John Agard & Grace Nichols. Walker Books (Teaching sequence available: https://www.clpe.org.uk/poetryline/resources/teaching- sequences/caribbean-dozen) Under The Moon and Over the Sea edited by John Agard & Grace Nichols. Walker Books (The first winner of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education Poetry Award) Hello New edited by John Agard. Orchard Books On A Camel to the Moon compiled by Valerie Bloom. Belitha Press One River Many Creeks chosen by Valerie Bloom. Macmillan Children’s Books For a more extensive list please visit John Lyons’ website: http://www.jcmlyons.co.uk/literary.html#litpoems Teacher Resources: Let’s Do Poetry in Primary Schools! (Teacher’s Guide) by James Carter. A&C Black 2012 Hands on Poetry edited by Sue Ellis with Myra Barrs. Centre for Language in Primary Education 1995 https://www.clpe.org.uk/aboutus/news/poetry-primary-schools-what-we-know-works Other resources: http://www.jcmlyons.co.uk/index.html (John Lyons’ website) http://www.poetryarchive.org/poet/john-lyons (about the poet) Before the Sequence: Before teaching from this poetry sequence and prior to reading Dancing in the Rain, it would be useful to spend time exploring poetry more generally with the children in your class. If this is not part of the whole school ethos, consider immersing the school, and certainly your year group, in a wide range of poetry. Become familiar with CLPE’s Poetryline website www.clpe.org.uk/poetryline and other sites that enable the children to watch poets reading their own poems. It is important for the children to see a poet perform a poem as it was intended to be read. Make available collections of poetry books; collections by the same author and anthologies, planning in regular browsing and independent reading time when the children can access the books. Teaching Sessions: Section 1: Poetry as a means of self-expression Session 1: Booktalk Discussion about books forms the foundations for working with books. The same is true of working with poems. Children need frequent, regular and sustained opportunities to talk together about the books and poems that they are reading as a whole class. The more experience they have of talking together like this the better they get at making explicit the meaning that a text holds for them. Begin the session by asking the children to share their favourite poems with each other, encourage the children to bring these poems into class and provide a setting in which they can explore their recommendations, such as in a poetry corner. From this starting point you can begin to explore the poems that the children are drawn to and respond to in the collection Dancing in the Rain. This will also be a useful starting point for discovering what the children like and dislike about poetry, which poems are their favourites, if they have a favourite author that they turn to when reading poetry and if they read poems outside of the school setting. At this point you can therefore explore what the children already know about poetry, not only to inform future planning, but also to address any misconceptions that may arise. Some children for example may think that all pomes have to rhyme. It is useful at the start of a poetry sequence to debunk the myth that exploring poetry means only deconstructing the use of language in the poem or only looking at the poetic form and devices, as it is also about responding emotionally to a poem and the children need to be encouraged to do this. Pick a selection of poems to read aloud from Dancing in the Rain that you responded to and that interested you as a reader. Share your thoughts, feelings and responses to the children as a model of how they can join in with discussions about poetry. Read the poems aloud again and discuss the children’s responses to the poems. Here you can use techniques taken from Aidan Chambers’ book Tell Me: Children, Reading & Talk with The Reading Environment Thimble Press 2011. These questions give children accessible starting points for discussion: - Tell me…was there anything you liked about this poem? - Was there anything that you particularly disliked…? - Was there anything that puzzled you? - Were there any patterns…any connections that you noticed…? - Do you notice any patterns in the language such as repetition? - Were there any memorable words or phrases that stood out to you? .
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